Introduction: Preparation of herbal mixtures from the traditional knowledge has been used for over centuries to im- prove and maintain health condition. Nonetheless, lack of scientific evaluations on regard to their bioactive metab- olites as a mixture and their pharmacological effects have yet to be reported. Therefore, the objectives of this study are 1) to determine the effect of processing techniques (blending and juicing) on extracting polyphenols and 2) to determine the effect ratio of honey in herbal mixture (containing ginger, garlic, honey, apple cider vinegar, and lem- on juice). Methods: Raw ingredients such as garlic, ginger, lemon and apple cider (1:1:1:1) were used as the base for this herbal mixture. The base was either blended using a blender or juiced using a juicer. The mixture was simmered (85oC - 100oC) until reduced to half of the initial volume and cooled down before being added with honey in 1:1 (rA) or 1:3 (rB) ratio. The mixtures were tested for pH, total phenolic, total flavonoid content and alpha glucosidase inhibitory activities. Results: Both of juiced samples in both honey ratio (rA and rB) have lower acidity compared to blended samples. Total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) also showed significantly high- er levels (p
The ocean has an exceptional resource with various groups of natural products that are potentially useful for biomedical and other applications. Marine sponges have prominent characteristic natural products with high diversity. They produce many vital therapeutic metabolites with prominent biological activities. Marine invertebrates and microbial communities are the primary producers of such metabolites. Among the richest sources of these metabolites, class Demospongiae and the order Haplosclerida and genus Xestopongiae from family Petrosiidae are of interest. This review summarizes the research that has been conducted on two classes, eight orders, twelve families and fourteen genera of marine sponges available in the South East Asia region, covering the literature of the last 20 years. Ninety-five metabolites including alkaloids, sterols, terpenoids, quinones isolated from marine sponges collected in South East Asia along with their bioactivities especially cytotoxicity and antibacterial activities were reported in this review. Chemistry and biology are highly involved in studying marine sponges. Thus, tight collaboration is needed for understanding their taxonomy aspects. This review will outline chemistry and biological aspects, challenge, limitation, new idea and a clear future perspective on the discovery of new drugs from South East Asia’s marine sponges.
Introduction: Airway inflammation is the pathological hallmark of chronic inflammatory airway diseases, especially asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Airway epithelium plays an indispensable role in these diseases by secreting inflammatory mediators and cytokines in response to foreign substances, such as lipopolysac- charide (LPS). Previous studies have shown that diarylpentanoid analogues, especially 5-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-hy- droxy-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)penta-2,4-dien-1-one (DHHPD) and 2-benzoyl-6-(3,4-dihydroxybenzylidene)cyclohex- en-1-ol (BDHBC), significantly inhibited nitric oxide (NO) production; suggesting their anti-inflammatory property. However, the therapeutic potential of DHHPD and BDHBC in airway inflammation has not been explored. Thus, this study aims to investigate their effects on interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 gene expression in LPS-induced Calu-3 cells, a cellular model of human airway epithelium. Methods: MTT cytotoxicity assay was carried out to identify non-cy- totoxic concentrations of DHHPD and BDHBC on Calu-3 cells. RT-PCR was done to determine IL-6 and IL-8 gene expression levels. Results: DHHPD and BDHBC were not cytotoxic on Calu-3 cells up to 200µM. Four non-cyto- toxic concentrations were chosen – 6.25, 12.5, 25 and 50µM to determine the effect of both compounds on gene expression. All four concentrations of DHHPD and BDHBC significantly inhibited LPS-induced mRNA expression of IL-6 while all concentrations of BDHBC, except 6.25µM, significantly reduced IL-8 mRNA expression. Similar find- ing was obtained for DHHPD, except that at 50µM, there was no inhibition of IL-8 mRNA expression. Conclusion: Diarylpentanoid analogues, DHHPD and BDHBC, are proven to be effective in suppressing LPS-induced IL-6 and IL-8 gene expression. However, further studies are required to confirm their inhibitory effects on the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.